It’s still a bit chilly
here in Wisconsin, but I’m willing spring to arrive with all of my spring
decorating inside! I love using old glass bottles and jars for decor. In fact, my spring mantel this year was full of them!

I wanted a little
something for spring in our family room, too, so I rummaged through my jar
stash to find a couple jars I could use as vases for spring flowers. Aren’t
they perfect for spring?!

This is an easy tutorial
you could use for any season of the year. I love switching out decor pieces
each season, it always gets me excited for what’s next! Plus these jars are so
little, they’d be easy to store for use year after year.

As a blogger it is no secret that I spend the vast majority of the day online. So it should come as no surprise that I also prefer to pay my bills online. Countless companies allow you to pay and manage your account online: Credit cards, energy companies, insurance, car payments, mortgages and student loans are all great examples of reoccurring bills that could be easily managed online.

Your monthly payment doesn't even have to be the same amount every month for online payments to work well. For example our Pacific Gas and Electric bill changes monthly based on usage, but we still pay online.
There are so many reasons that I prefer getting my account, billing and payment information online instead of with paper statements. From convenience to the environment, there are at least 10 good reasons to give up paper billing.

10 Reasons You Should Go Paperless:

Today’s project is a crossover between a craft and home decor. I was invited to create a Shibori project as part of the Create & Share challenge. Shibori is a modified form of tie dying, using indigo dyes. I wanted to do something a little unexpected to I tackled a lampshade!
There were 6 other bloggers in the challenge and they came up with their own ideas for Shibori. I also love how the actual pattern in the dye is different for everyone.

It is my favorite post of the month! The POWER TOOL CHALLENGE.. and this month, the prompt was "Home Decor" projects. 10 bloggers including myself came up with a new home dec project and there were some awesome ideas:

Today’s post is my way of having a little heart to heart with you dear readers. Consider it a pep talk of sorts. And along with it comes one little request. The one thing I hear from SO MANY people when they find out I write a blog is “Bloggers so talented! I’m so impressed with everything they do, but there is no way I could do it.”

So today I’m going to have to demand that you STOP SAYING THAT! For one thing.. it just ins’t true. I’m not saying that there aren’t amazingly talented bloggers out there.. that part is true, but stop saying that YOU can’t do what WE do.. since you can. I believe that almost anyone can pull off a lot of the projects shared on our blogs; maybe not without a bit of practice, but just remember, we all started somewhere. The blogger rebuilding her entire kitchen from the floor up, didn’t start with projects of that magnitude and that master woodworker working with $50/LF exotic wood was once building birdhouses out of pallets and whitewood. You have to START somewhere if you want to get better.

Shameless Plug: If you are looking for a group of other female woodworkers (which can be less intimidating and condescending than some of the large male dominated Facebook woodworking groups) I recently set one up that you are welcome to join.

And as additional inspiration I asked dozens of DIY and woodworking bloggers to share their very FIRST project with me. The build or project that put them on the road to where they are now. When you click though to any of these posts, make sure you also click over to their current projects, chances are you are going to see improvement.. more complex and difficult projects (plus I am betting their photos and blogging actually got better too!) Many of them used other people’s plans in the beginning, and now are designing their own. It all just demonstrates just how far we have come..

This was my first project on the blog was a simple bathroom update, where I replaced the vanity and medicine cabinet and painted the walls. I didn’t do all of it on my own, I hired out for many of the jobs, but it was my first real foray into home improvement. I actually have revisited that post a few times, since it was a huge turning point in my self-confidence about working on my house.Just remember, even the most talented and amazing building bloggers, were new DIY’rs once. The only difference between them, and someone who thinks they can’t do it.. is their willingness to try a project for the first time.

They jumped in, and so should you!

So what were the first projects these bloggers tackled?

Every year when I pull out my Easter decorations my son accuses me of having an obsession with bunny butts. I've put them on tote bags. I've put them on banners and pillow covers. And now I'm putting them on wreath. I can't help it - those little fluffy tails are just too cute!

When I started experimenting with ideas for this wreath I couldn't decide whether I wanted a ruffled version or a non-ruffled version, so I made both. And I'm sharing directions for both versions so you can make whichever one you like best.

Today's post is a follow up to a project I did a while back for my Valentine's Day mantel. I volunteered to make some wall art for a local woman's shelter and they specifically asked for something that would go in a child's nursery. I wanted to reuse my "LOVE YOU" scrabble tiles, but knew they were a pain to hang individually since they each would need their own nail.
So I decided to mount them and frame the as a single large pice of wall art.
I didn't want to buy a frame, I wanted to make the entire thing from scratch and on a tight budget, so this is how I did it.